When we travel, I usually read up about the places that we’re going to and try to get some history of the area, unmissable things to be seen, and ideas of what to do and see while we’re there. There are history books about the Bahamas, there are travel guides about the Bahamas, but we were only going to Bimini.
Bimini doesn’t even show up on the show Bahamas Life. I was also so worried about the transportation there and back and what was happening in Florida before and after the week in Bimini, I just didn’t do any research at all on where we were staying or going to go. That might not sound like a lot, but it’s a huge change in my normal travel style.
When we travel, I usually stay connected to work in some way. I will even see clients remotely because the pandemic has normalized this for me and my clients. It’s not hard and it doesn’t feel like an imposition on my vacation to carve an hour out of a day to make sure that someone is doing well or getting through a hard time okay.
I left my phone in airplane mode and the wifi connection was so bad that when someone did email me about a possible session, I had to say that it wasn’t feasible with the crappy internet. This might not sound like a lot, but it’s a huge change in my normal ability to put work away.
When we travel, I blog about our days usually at the end of every day so that I can remember everything we saw and did. It’s amazing how fast the days will blur together when you’re traveling and I like to keep family and friends updated with what’s going on in our trip as we go. This isn’t always feasible when the internet is bad or we’re on a cruise, but I try to upload pictures when we dock.
I didn’t blog a single entry in Bimini.
I had someone ask me where we were and was I going to do blog posts because they wanted to keep up with us. I still didn’t have the drive to type up an entry, download photos off the camera, or take pictures with my own phone. I think I posted twice to facebook that we had made it, that it was pretty. That’s it. This might not seem like a big deal, but for me and how I usually stay connected it felt like a huge change.
For 7 days in Bimini, I cultivated actually doing nothing above and beyond making sure we ate, were clothed, and had shelter.
The rest of the time was spent doing absolutely nothing but looking at the sun dappled water, listening to the kids play, sipping a drink, and occasionally putting on sunscreen. My walk slowed, my stride shortened, and my thoughts were of the shallow variety. “Am I getting too much sun?” “Do I need more ice?” “That breeze feels lovely.” That may not sound like much, but that felt like a huge shift in me as a person. As a clinician. As a business owner. As a social media user. As a traveler.
I like to try to immerse myself in the places that we go to and find the local places to get food, the local ways to shop, the local ways to look at the world. I try to take time in each trip to catch a little of the local vibe wherever we are. While I can sit in a cafe in Pisa, Italy and feel like I am getting a small shot of what it means to be a local out of the way of the tourist horde, I’m not really out of traveler mode. I’m always looking at the next thing that needs to be done, seen, heard. I think I got the closest I’ve ever been in the Bahamas for a second or two. Island life seems to have a slow, steady rhythm that doesn’t require worrying. It seems to be focused on experiencing and enjoying. I definitely feel like I did that for maybe the first time.